Richmond City Council Election 2012: Marilyn Langlois

“I firmly believe you can be a city council member without yelling and screaming and fistfights,” says City Council candidate Marilyn Langlois. (Photo by: Zach St. George)

“Knock! Knock!”

Compared to the red door, the woman’s head and shoulders, blurry through the window, look enormous. The weather outside is ominous, dark and cloudy.

“Who’s there?”

The door opens. The giant (surprise!) is City Council candidate Marilyn Langlois, and this is the inside fold of a slick red and olive political flier. Don’t vote for Langlois, the ad implores the reader—“She wants to raise your family’s taxes!” and, “She even refused to pay her own taxes!”

The real Marilyn Langlois, walking her bike along the Richmond Bay Trail, is not a giant. She’s normal-sized, dressed in a blue windbreaker over a white turtleneck and a scarf, wearing glasses and abalone earrings. She is not, by height, breadth, or demeanor, the least bit frightening.

Whether you like her policies or not, Marilyn Langlois is one of the nicest people running for the Richmond City Council. She’s polite, always cheerful, never swears, and is relentlessly positive.

“Oh sure, I’ve seen Marilyn get upset,” says Mayor Gayle McLaughlin. “But she expresses it in a calm, even way.”